Regents picks give Walz a chance to push back against the assault on academia

One of the majority of major duties facing Gov Tim Walz as he contemplates whether to run again for a historic third term is his appointment by this Friday July of four members of the Board of Regents His appointees will fill vacancies of one-third of that -member body that oversees the University of Minnesota including the flagship Twin Cities campus and five sites in Greater Minnesota encompassing selected students and thousands faculty and staff The significance of the task is magnified by the challenges to higher tuition posed by President Donald Trump his administration and the MAGA movement that has now become the Republican Party The administration s relentless attacks on a number of schools on grounds of alleged anti-Semitism immigration issues and left-wing ideology biases defunding of programs and other intrusions has been complemented within the last meager weeks by the forced resignation of the president of the University of Virginia and the rejection of the pending hiring of a new president of the University of Florida because of their past patronage of the diversity equity and inclusion DEI initiatives that are so reviled in MAGA world Marshall H Tanick The University of Minnesota has experienced this backlash with an assessment of its practices that yielded a timid response from the regents who developed a framework last March authorizing the school s president Rebecca Cunningham to censor any content on websites addressing matters of population concern or constituents interest Given that sledgehammer she promptly removed items from school-maintained websites These multiple and growing challenges to academic freedom and integrity call for the governor to use his own cudgel to appoint stalwarts to the board rather than continue to cave in to unwarranted assaults on the institution It s his opportunity to inject a backbone into a group that has been supine in the face of the onslaught on academia Marshall H Tanick is a constitutional and employment law attorney with the Twin Cities law firm of Meyer Njus Tanick The post Regents picks give Walz a chance to push back against the assault on academia appeared first on MinnPost